MADRID (AP) – Spain's King Juan Carlos has successfully undergone hip replacement surgery after tripping on stairs and fracturing bones around the joint while on an elephant hunting trip in Botswana, officials said Saturday. It was the monarch's fourth surgery in almost two years.

Botswana government spokesman Jeff Ramsay told the Associated Press that the 74-year-old was on a private visit up north in the Okavango area when he had the accident. "He was hunting for elephant. He has a permit," the spokesman said.
The fall occurred early Friday morning in the chalet where the head of state was staying, said Angel Villamor, spokesman for San Jose hospital in Madrid where the king had his operation.
Juan Carlos flew back and was driven straight to hospital after landing, a royal palace spokesman said. The palace also released a statement saying the king had sustained "a fracture in three fragments of the right hip, associated with osteoarthritis of that joint."
Spanish state broadcaster RTVE carried the news on its website accompanied by a photograph of the king, rifle in hand, standing next to a dead elephant while on a previous hunting trip with a Botswana-based safari company.
The latest incident drew criticism from some lawmakers at a time when Spain is on the verge of recession with close to 23 percent unemployment.
"It can't be said the head of state is losing sleep over the many thousands of young people who are unemployed," said Cayo Lara of the United Left party.
The surgery was the king's fourth since May 2010. Previously, a benign tumor has been removed from one of his lungs, in June last year he also underwent surgery on his right knee and then in September he had an operation to repair Achilles tendon damage.
This is not the first time the aging monarch's love of hunting has caused concern. In October 2006, a Russian governor launched an inquiry into reports that Juan Carlos had shot and killed a bear while on holiday near Moscow.
Vyacheslav Pozgalyov, governor of the Vologda region northeast of Moscow, had reportedly received a letter from the region's deputy hunting chief, Sergei Starostin, claiming a bear — named Mitrofan — had been fed honey mixed with vodka before being released near a site where the king was to hunt.
Starostin wrote that the local authorities had thus turned the king's hunting trip into a "disgusting fraud," Russia's top business daily Kommersant said.
Mitrofan, whom Starostin described as "a good-natured and joyful bear," was taken from his home at a local holiday resort and brought to the hunting place where they "generously fed him with vodka mixed with honey and pushed him into a field," the newspaper quoted the letter as saying.
The Spanish royal family has enjoyed hunting with firearms for decades, but has also experienced its share of gun-related tragedies.
The king's 13-year-old grandson, Felipe Juan Froilan, is currently recovering in a hospital after shooting himself in the foot accidentally with a shotgun.
The most serious shooting incident occurred in 1956 when Juan Carlos accidentally shot and killed his 14-year-old brother while handling a gun during a vacation visit to Estoril, Portugal.
The royal family has been the focus of much media attention in recent months on account of a judicial probe into whether Princess Cristina's husband, Inaki Urdangarin, used his privileged position to secure lucrative deals for a nonprofit foundation he ran, then fraudulently diverted some of the money for personal benefit.

Mitrofan, whom Starostin described as "a good-natured and joyful bear," was taken from his home at a local holiday resort and brought to the hunting place where they "generously fed him with vodka mixed with honey and pushed him into a field,"

Not all shotguns shoot 1337 50 cal buck shot like they do in call of duty

That's hardly what i meant, i know how shotguns work, at really close, that load of shot works like a single round, ripping a big hole in whatever it hits. Next time you go to a firing range, test it, point blank range vs a piece of card board.

EDIT: Just thought it over, likely that he only hit the edge of his foot, but it's just as likely he hit the center of his foot.

point blank shotgun, especially if he was shooting buckshot, will just go right through a foot and not cause any hydrostatic shock.

if he was shooting slugs though, that shit would tear him up.

If anything, the opposite is true, the buckshot would spread slightly, dispersing more energy in a given area. Same principle of a frangible bullet. And what i said was that the round from the shotgun would function as a slug at point blank, considering there's a plastic cup to hold all the shot in place as it gets fired from the barrel.

EDIT: a friend of my dad's son accidentally shot himself in the foot with a .308 while hunting a few years back, it just went right through, fucked his foot to hell for half a year, but he recovered with most of the function in his foot.

If anything, the opposite is true, the buckshot would spread slightly, dispersing more energy in a given area. Same principle of a frangible bullet. And what i said was that the round from the shotgun would function as a slug at point blank, considering there's a plastic cup to hold all the shot in place as it gets fired from the barrel.

EDIT: a friend of my dad's son accidentally shot himself in the foot with a .308 while hunting a few years back, it just went right through, fucked his foot to hell for half a year, but he recovered with most of the function in his foot.

I put a 5.56x45 through my foot and was back on it in 2 weeks, bullets aren't as bad as you think. it's all about shot placement and the foot isn't exactly a vital location

Edited:

the buckshot would only spread if the shotgun wasn't choked, it would be contracting at that distance in most shotguns. a slug at that distance would give you about a half inch entry and 3/4ths exit

Edited:

now if you were shot in the torso at that distance it would be a different matter entirely.

If anything, the opposite is true, the buckshot would spread slightly, dispersing more energy in a given area. Same principle of a frangible bullet. And what i said was that the round from the shotgun would function as a slug at point blank, considering there's a plastic cup to hold all the shot in place as it gets fired from the barrel.

EDIT: a friend of my dad's son accidentally shot himself in the foot with a .308 while hunting a few years back, it just went right through, fucked his foot to hell for half a year, but he recovered with most of the function in his foot.

Even the shittiest, cheapest birdshot available punches a 2x2cm hole in a 2x4 at point blank. I've tried it.

Why didn't the bullet expand? Was he such a moron he used fmj for hunting?

Too bad it's actually not that passive. Elephants often rage for no reason at all, they're known to kill humans for no reason.

I was actually watching this video just as I read that comment. [7:30 onward]
I agree that elephant hunting is getting out of hand, and should be stopped for a few years for the elephant populations to populate. I've got no issue nor quarrels with hunting, but everything on the carcass should at least have some use.

He accidentaly killed his own brother while hunting. That alone should've made him stop hunting forever.

Also, aren't there more common animals to hunt like deers or boars? Why hunt fucking elephants?

His eyesight isn't what it used to be. He can aim in the general direction of an elephant from a distance and score a hit, he probably couldn't even see a boar in the underbrush if he was standing over it.

Too bad it's actually not that passive. Elephants often rage for no reason at all, they're known to kill humans for no reason.

Elephants are capable of holding grudges. To the extent where they're able to recognize humans who have hurt members of their family or themselves and take revenge. Some elephants go on rampages and kill human beings, some elephants slaughter their cattle.

Liking the monarch is not the same thing as supporting the monarchy, same way you can think the leader of X party is a good person but you're completely against that party's ideals

In 2010 as many as 75% of Spanish citizens ranked the monarchy as "above any other public institution in the country", according to Dr Juan Díez-Nicolás, a former president of the CIS and founder of the private consulting firm ASEP (Análisis Sociológicos Económicos y Políticos).

In 2010 as many as 75% of Spanish citizens ranked the monarchy as "above any other public institution in the country", according to Dr Juan Díez-Nicolás, a former president of the CIS and founder of the private consulting firm ASEP (Análisis Sociológicos Económicos y Políticos).

That's another thing. I personally don't see a monarchy necessary at current times, specially when the function it serves most of the time is wasting public money you could spend in something more useful like education or science. Too bad the priorities of this country are mostly which football team is gonna win the league (France parodying Spanish sportsmen being a state matter in a country with a massive unemployment rate and with every sane person leaving to find a decent work just shows how rotten this whole thing is)

That's another thing. I personally don't see a monarchy necessary at current times, specially when the function it serves most of the time is wasting public money you could spend in something more useful like education or science. Too bad the priorities of this country are mostly which football team is gonna win the league (France parodying Spanish sportsmen being a state matter in a country with a massive unemployment rate and with every sane person leaving to find a decent work just shows how rotten this whole thing is)

The budget approved by the Cortes for 2009 was just under 9 million euros.

The king is the head of the second oldest monarchy in the world, a living link to Spain's glorious past, a living symbol for a united Spain. His very existence is part of the seams that hold the fabric of Spanish culture and nationhood together.

The king symbolizes the personal union between Aragon and Castille,he basicly holds the two parts together and otherwise would be two different countries(they have different language,culture).
You cant just take and old tradition and throw it out of the window because some liberal ideals,the kings still has a meaning.